How many Tate Galleries are there in the UK now and where are they

Asks howardpiercy

A. There are now four Tate galleries in the UK. There are two in London: Tate Britain and the new Tate Modern; one in Liverpool; and one in St Ives, Cornwall.

Q. Are they all suitable to visit on a day-out during the school holidays this summer
A. They are all suitable for children to visit and can all be visited for day trips - but that really depends on where you live. If you live in Birmingham or London for example, it would be too far to visit the gallery in St Ives for the day, and you'd have to book a longer trip.

Q. What are the best ways to reach each gallery, using public transport
A. In London, Tate Britain is best reached by tube, the nearest being Pimlico on the Victoria line; while the Tate Modern can be reached by tube too the nearest stations are Southwark (Jubilee line) or Blackfriars (District & Circle line).

The Tate Gallery, Liverpool can be reached by train and coach - both terminals are situated near Lime Street from several destinations around the country.

For the Tate, St Ives you can take a train from London Paddington to Penzance and change for local lines to St Ives. In addition, you can also reach Cornwall by Air Brymon Airways, a subsidiary of British Airways, flies four times a day from London Gatwick to Newquay (http://www.british-airways.com).

Full details on all train services within the UK are available online at http://www.railtrack.co.uk/travel or for coach services, http://www.nationalexpress.co.uk .

Q. Before I plan my trip, can you tell me what the difference is between each gallery And give me any details of current exhibitions that I might visit
A. Tate Britain is the traditional Tate Gallery and is the national gallery for British art from 1500 to the present day - it contains great British work by Blake, Constable, Epstein, Gainsborough, Hatoum, Hirst, Hockney, Hodgkin, Hogarth, Moore, Rossetti, Sickert, Spencer, Stubbs and Turner.

Current exhibition: James Gillray
6 June 2001 - 2 September 2001
James Gillray (1756-1815) was one of Britain's most inventive caricaturists of the 18th century. This exhibition brings together over 200 prints and drawings from public and private collections in Britain and the US giving new life to the key characters of Gillray's world; John Bull, Napoleon Bonaparte and William Pitt the Younger.

Tate Modern opened last year, and is Britain's new museum of modern art, it houses international modern art from 1900 to the present day, including works by Dali, Matisse, Picasso and Warhol. Present day art includes work by Gilbert & George, Dorothy Cross and Susan Hiller. The building that houses all the art used to be a power station and was transformed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Current exhibitions: Giorgio Morandi
22 May - 12 August 2001
Morandi is an Italian painter, well known for his still lifes, especially his abstract canvases of the 1960s.

Zero to infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972
31 May - 19 August 2001
The term 'Arte Povera' was introduced by the Italian art critic Germano Celant, in 1967. It provides a collective identity for a number of young Italian artists based in Turin, Milan, Genoa and Rome. This exhibition includes key works by Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio.


Tate Liverpool houses the largest collection of 20th Century modern and contemporary art in the UK, outside London. It is located in the refurbished Albert Dock development area.

Current exhibition: Emotional Ties
17 March 2001 - 24 February 2002
Drawn from the Tate Collection, this display examines the relationships between artists and their models, families, friends and lovers through their representation in painting, sculpture and photography. Featured artists include: Pierre Bonnard, Andr Derain, Nan Goldin, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff, Edvard Munch, Thomas Struth and Pablo Picasso.

Tate St Ives is situated very close to the sea, and offers the opportunity of seeing many works of modern art created in or concerning, Cornwall. The Gallery also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, which gives a remarkable insight into the work of this great twentieth-century sculptor.

Current exhibitions include: Antony Gormley
16 June - 2 September 2001
Gormley is one of the UK's best known sculptors and the Tate St Ives has given over its entire gallery space to four of his installations: Bed (1981); Field for the British Isles (1993); Still (1994) and Critical Mass (1995).

Q. How can I contact each gallery for more information
A. More information on the art in each of the four Tate galleries is available online at http://www.tate.org.uk . Alternatively you can contact each gallery at the following addresses:

Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1
Telephone: 020 7 887 8000
Opening hours: Daily 10:00-17:50
Prices: Free, although donations welcome

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG UK Telelephone: 020 7 887 8000
Opening hours Sunday to Thursday 10:00-18:00. Friday and Saturday 10:00-22:00
Prices: Free, although donations welcome

Tate Gallery Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BB UK
Telephone: 0151 702 7400 Fax: 0151 702 7401 Email: [email protected]
Opening hours Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00. Closed Mon except Bank Holiday
Prices: Free, although donations welcome, 3 for some exhibitions

Tate Gallery St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives TR26 1TG UK
Tel 01736 796 226
Email: [email protected]
Opening hours Tue-Sun 10:30-17:30. Closed Mon (except Bank Holidays)
Prices Tate Gallery only 3.95; Barbara Hepworth Museum only 3.75; Joint Ticket 6.50

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by Karen Anderson